So first off, I just want to point out that I bought this book way back in 1998 and aside from one failed attempt back then, did not read it until now. This thing's been chunking around with me for 23 years!
Review-wise, I was originally going to give it 3 stars, but realized that that would be overly-generous, so I'm going to settle on somewhere between 2.7 - 2.8 stars. I didn't hate it, but it also isn't making onto any “Best of” list. The book just has too many issues to climb above that.
First off, the book felt dated even for something published in 1998 and I've long suspected that it was written much, much earlier, like maybe the early 90s or even the 80s. For example, the computers are referred to as “compunits” and the description evokes those table-mounted computers from the original Star Trek.
Second, is that Rick Shelley really, really wanted the reader to know that the Dirigent Mercenary Corps is a 100% all beef, baby. There are no women mercenaries, something that Shelley drives home by repeatedly using the word “men” just in case you hadn't already figured out that the DMC is a sausage fest. Indeed, there are almost no women in the book at all. The one that does get mentioned is the wife of one of the mercs. It's just odd and funny because I believe at around the time Officer-Cadet was published, other military science fiction writers were including women in their books. That's one of the other reasons why I think this book is much older than its pub date.
Sidenote: For whatever reason, Shelley decided that that aforementioned merc should be a cuckhold who is not only fine with that the fact that his friends have had sex with his wife (who works as a waitress and sex worker) and encourages the main character, Lon Nolan, to do the same.
Yeaaah...
ANYWAYS, the other problem with the book is that for being one of the top mercenary companies in the galaxy, the Dirigent Mercenary Corps. is...not great. They have their own planet, but keep their entire military force located in one base. That's real convenient for anyone who attacks them, because all they'd have to do is hit one target instead of having to contend with multiple.
They also don't seem to have any ground vehicles because they don't take any with them to the planet they're deployed to. The only transportation they did bring are shuttles that have to pull the dual role of transports and close-air support. So what we get is a lot of walking. A lot of walking. Pretty much a good chunk of the book is just Lon and his unit traveling from place to place on foot. It's just incomprehensible that a military force would show up without ground vehicles.
I'm not sure they even brought machine guns either. They have rifles, grenade launchers, and beamers (directed energy weapons), but I don't recall there being any mention of machine guns. Same with sniper rifles. Really, it's almost like these guys showed up with no heavy weapons whatsoever and were like “YEAH! LET'S DO THIS! YEEHAW, MOTHERTRUCKERS!”
If I'm being honest and I'm trying not to come off as a jerk because the man's been dead for like 20 years, but I don't think Rick Shelley really knew up from down when it came to knowing how a military works.
One final gripe is that we don't find out the motivation of the rebels the MC and the rest of the mercs have been fighting until the end of the book, when it's revealed that they're the remnants of a hyper-fanatical religious cult that tried to take over the Earth, who were dumped on the planet after they lost. It felt like it was tacked on because Shelley needed to throw something in there.
Overall, Officer-Cadet was just okay. I didn't hate it, but I'm likely never going to re-read it again.
Note: I actually read Valor's Choice in the A Confederation of Valor omnibus, but I'm counting both books in it separately since they're, you know, separate books.
I should also note that I read this as part of an effort to read as many novels written by women this month as a way to celebrate Women's History Month.
Anyways, I enjoyed Valor's Choice. It's a fun military SF novel that doesn't take itself too seriously in that there's a healthy mix of action, drama, and humor. The interplay between the characters, especially the enlisted marines, reminded me of Robert Asprin's Phule's Company and that's one of the things I enjoyed so much about that novel.
All in all, a very good novel.
Maybe it was just the audiobook and the way the people read it, but the dialogue was...not great. I don't know if that's just how Don DeLillo writes dialogue, but it was the weakest part of the story and dragged the rest of the story down.
I did like the premise, but was disappointed that it wasn't explored more. It felt like a lot of meat was left on the bone.
Minor spoilers ahead:
A book that started out strong, stumbled a bit, and ended okay. Not a bad book - indeed, it was quite enjoyable - it just hits a point where certain characters get on your nerves and it the story feels overly long, as if Michael Crichton was padding the story to meet the word count.
It was interesting to compare the book with the Steven Spielberg flick. There were differences, obviously, but it was fun to see what scenes made it into the movie. I like that in the book, John Hammond is far from being the nice, likeable character that the late great Richard Attenborough portrayed. In the novel, he's just an absolute b*stard and so blatantly out of touch with reality and the consequences of his actions (like funding the creation of dinosaurs and populating an entire island with them), that you'll almost gleefully enjoy his demise.
On the flipside, however, Crichton very obviously did not know how to write little girls. I say this because by three quarters of the way into the novel, you'll want to throw Lexi to the velociraptors yourself! In the movie, she's a fine, likeable character. In the book, she's almost a non-entity for most of the book whereupon she suddenly and inexplicably turns into an absolute brat. Seriously, there's a scene where she refuses to give her older brother (their ages are flipped around in the movie) a radio because "I found it first" and that trumps him needing to call for help. At that point, I started wishing that she'd either go back to plaintively complaining about being hungry, or that one of those aforementioned velociraptors would show up and eat her. Sounds terrible, but holy cow, she's bad.
All in all, I would still recommend this to anybody who wants to read a techno-thriller based on science run amok.
Originally read this when I was a teenager and enjoyed it. I've re-read twice since (including just this week!) and I think it still holds up as an enjoyable read. One major difference between then and now is that I'm more knowledgeable about the Star Trek franchise now, so I was able to catch more of the references and easter eggs that otherwise flew over my head when I read this way back in ‘97.
I will note that the writing does feel a bit clunky and some references I mentioned don't quite line up with the canon (the Klingon Empire, for example, didn't collapse during the events of Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country). Aside from that, I can't think of any negatives that would make this not worth reading. I would recommend this as a good starting point for anybody looking to dip their toe in the Star Trek literature.
It was a bit slow at the start, but really picked up speed about halfway through. Had twists I did not expect, which is nice. Only knock I have is that the bulk of the story is that Maigret spends a lot of time just standing or sitting around, waiting and that's only when he isn't rushing off from place to place. Nonetheless, I would recommend it.
Actually read this back when I was in high school and I still remember quite a bit of it. A lot more than I ever expected to. The one oddity of the book is that it shifts between Dwayne Johnson the person and his wrestling persona, The Rock. IIRC, the former covered more serious and important parts of his life, while the latter was basically The Rock cutting promos. Despite this, it was a highly interesting biography and one I would recommend to a fan of professional wrestling.
DNF'd. I gave it a shot and made it 35% into the audiobook, but just couldn't muster the willpower to keep going. The main character was both incompetent and unlikeable.